About Later

LATER
Stephen King
March 2021
ISBN: 978-1-78909-649-1
Cover art by Paul Mann, Gregory Manchess

SOMETIMES GROWING UP
MEANS FACING YOUR DEMONS

The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine—as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.

LATER is Stephen King at his finest, a terrifying and touching story of innocence lost and the trials that test our sense of right and wrong. With echoes of King’s classic novel It, LATER is a powerful, haunting, unforgettable exploration of what it takes to stand up to evil in all the faces it wears.

The new novel by the world’s most popular author—first publication anywhere!
Featuring an original cover painting by Paul Mann
Will also be available as a limited-edition hardcover with two cover paintings by Gregory Manchess

If you are in India, you can order LATER by clicking here.

SEE BELOW FOR THE ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE ANNOUNCING LATER:

NEW STEPHEN KING NOVEL, LATER,
COMING FROM HARD CASE CRIME

LATER to be published in March 2021

New York, NY; London, UK (August 3, 2020)—Hard Case Crime, the award-winning line of pulp-styled crime novels published by Titan Books, today announced it will publish LATER, a brand-new novel by Stephen King, in March 2021. LATER tells the story of Jamie Conklin, a boy whose unusual abilities could aid his single mom and her police detective lover—but only at a terrible cost. One of the most beloved storytellers of all time, Stephen King is the world’s best-selling novelist, with more than 350 million books in print.

Called "the best new American publisher to appear in the last decade" by Neal Pollack in The Stranger, Hard Case Crime revives the storytelling and visual style of the pulp paperbacks of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. The line features an exciting mix of lost pulp masterpieces from some of the most acclaimed crime writers of all time and gripping new novels from the next generation of great hardboiled authors, all with new painted covers in the grand pulp style. Authors have ranged from literary figures such as Joyce Carol Oates and Gore Vidal to giants of the mystery genre such as James M. Cain, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Mickey Spillane, as well as film directors Brian De Palma and Samuel Fuller, titans of speculative fiction such as Ray Bradbury and Michael Crichton, and numerous Grand Masters of the Mystery Writers of America including Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, and Ed McBain.

LATER is the third book Stephen King has written for Hard Case Crime. Both of the previous two, THE COLORADO KID and JOYLAND, were New York Times bestsellers.

Stephen King commented, "I love the Hard Case format, and this story—combining a boy who sees beyond our world and strong elements of crime and suspense—seemed a perfect fit."

"LATER is a beautiful story about growing up and facing your demons—whether they’re metaphorical or (as sometimes happens when you’re in a Stephen King novel) the real thing," said Charles Ardai, the Edgar Award-winning editor of Hard Case Crime. "It’s terrifying, tender, heartbreaking and honest, and we’re so excited to bring it to readers."

Like Stephen King’s previous books for Hard Case Crime, LATER will be published initially as a paperback original, featuring an original cover painting by Paul Mann. This edition will be followed by a limited-edition hardcover that will feature two new cover paintings by award-winning artist Gregory Manchess, one for LATER itself and one for a fictitious novel within the novel that features prominently in the plot. An ebook edition of LATER will also be available.

Other upcoming Hard Case Crime titles include KILLER, COME BACK TO ME, a new collection of the crime stories of Ray Bradbury, published in August 2020 to commemorate the author’s 100th birthday; SKIM DEEP by Road To Perdition author Max Allan Collins, the first new novel about his master thief, Nolan, to be published in more than 30 years; and FIVE DECEMBERS, a major new novel set in the shadows stretching from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, penned by an author writing under the name "James Kestrel" whose previous books have earned raves from Lee Child, Meg Gardiner, James Patterson and Stephen King. For information about forthcoming titles, visit www.HardCaseCrime.com.